Movie review: 'The Cartel' a monumental failure

In taking to task the sorry state of our public schools, former New Jersey TV personality Bob Bowdon employs the three R’s of bad filmmaking: righteousness, revilement and redundancy.

Al Alexander

In taking to task the sorry state of our public schools, former New Jersey TV personality Bob Bowdon employs the three R’s of bad filmmaking: righteousness, revilement and redundancy.

All are abundantly on display in “The Cartel,” a myopic bore brimming with so much hearsay, innuendo and meaningless statistics that it plays more like a lazily researched term paper than a documentary.

Bowdon also doesn’t have much use for originality, copying Michael Moore with his lame, on-camera displays of indignation and disgust over an education system that cherishes mediocrity almost as much as he does.

Granted, he makes a few valid points about how cronyism, nepotism and tenure have contributed to America falling behind a handful of Third World countries when it comes to teaching math and language skills. But he does it in such a shallow, unengaging way it’s all you can do to stay awake – sort of like when you used to struggle to make it through calculus.

That’s largely due to the fact that “The Cartel” (the title a reference to his belief that our schools operate on the same monopolistic principles as OPEC) possesses all the oomph and esthetic of a hastily assembled student film.

It looks ugly, and it looks cheap, especially the “Sesame Street”-like graphics and grainy film clips cribbed from various network and cable news programs like “Meet the Press.”

“The Cartel” reaches its peak of annoyance, however, in its propagandizing of charter schools. Bowdon loves them and tries everything in his power to get you to feel the same by stacking the deck with images of teary-eyed little tykes denied admission to these golden palaces because there’s not enough room for everyone seeking access.

He wants more of these citadels, and he wants them now before we lose an entire generation to an institution that – much like the Catholic Church – operates under a cloak of secrecy when it comes to issues of money and personnel.

And like bad-apple priests, bad teachers, or at least those in Bowdon’s home state of New Jersey, are harbored and protected despite being accused of slapping, groping or verbally humiliating their young students.

While I’m sure there’s an element of truth to what Bowdon says, I doubt these acts are as prevalent as he insinuates, particularly his claim of teachers spending a good part of their day surfing porn in the faculty lounge.

Of course, sex and sensationalism sell. And who would know that better than a guy borne out of TV journalism, a profession infamous for striving for ratings over truth.

So, for 90-odd minutes, Bowdon does nothing but offer up the absolute worst examples of educational malfeasance, complete with bribes, kickbacks, political favors and fat-cat administrators hauling in a quarter-mil per year. And how does he illustrate this? By showing us what brand of car they drive, of course. (Note to principals and superintendents, don’t buy a Mercedes, BMW or Lexus; they’re a dead giveaway.)

It would have been nice if he actually talked to one of those cats and asked them about their wheels or how they felt about being paid so much for allegedly doing so little. But that might mean editing out one of the many self-serving testimonials to charter schools by his bevy of non-hostile witnesses.

The only thing more galling is Bowdon’s condescending tone toward his audience, even going so far as to ask us, “What have we learned?”

I’ll tell you what we’ve learned: Bowdon is an aggrandizing blowhard with more of an agenda than a purpose when it comes to debasing the quality of our children’s education. For that, give him a big, fat F.

Al Alexander may be reached at aalexander@ledger.com.

THE CARTEL (Unrated.) A documentary written and directed by Bob Bowdon. 1 star.